Buckle



(No Model.) I

0'. W. BASSETT.

BUCKLE. No. 413,382. Patented Oct. 22, 1889.

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G/M/rzmM BASSETT ATTORNEY N. PEYERS. Fhulmtflhograplwn Waxhingtm D-C.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES \V. BASSETT, OF ALALWIEDA, CALIFORNIA.

BUCKLE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 413,382, dated October 22, 1889.

Application filed April 17, 1889. Serial No. 307,623. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES W. BASSETT,

of Alameda, in the county of Alameda and State of California, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Document-File Bands, of which the following is a specification.

My invention is in the nature of an improved buckle and strap for use as a bill-file for bunching together and securing in a bundle loose packages of folded papers.

It consists in the peculiar construction of.

the buckle and the combination therewith of a tape or strap disposed in the buckle in a peculiar manner, as willbe hereinafter fully described.

Figure 1 is a transverse section of a package of papers strapped together in a bunch by my bill-file. Fig. 2 is an enlarged sectional view through the buckle when the tape is re laXed. Fig. 3 is a similar View with the tape under tension. Fig. 4 is a top plan View. of the buckle, and Fig. 5 a bottom plan view of the same.

line, so that the upper section of the buckle.

is longer than the lower section and overlaps it a short distance. This sheet-metal buckle is formed with a transverse slot a near its underneath or short end, a transverse slot 19 at the bend, and two parallel transverse slots 0 (1 near its end, which lies on top.

In fastening the tape to this buckle one end of 'the tape is passed through the slots a b, and is firmly secured by stitching or by fastening in a closed slot made for that purpose between slots at b, or otherwise, around the body of metal intervening between these two slots. The other end of the tape, after passing around the bundle of papers, is extended first up through slot" (1, then through slot 0, then 7 down 'slotd, then through slot a, then up and through slot cl. Now, when the buckle is in the position shown in Fig. 2, with the tape relaxed, the spring or elasticity of the metal plate holds the two sections of the.

buckle away from each other, and the tape can be readily pulled back and forth through the slots to give access to the papers or adjust the tape thereto. When, however,'the free end of the tape is drawn up tightly to put the tape in tension around the bundle,

the upper section of the buckle is pulled tightly down against the lower section, as in Fig. 3, and this action flattens and pinches the folds'of the tape between the upper and lower sections of the buckle-plate, so as to tightly clamp and hold the tape against slipping back through the slots, To loosen the bundle, it is only necessary to raise the upper section of the plate, which is conveniently effected with the thumb and finger by reason of the overlapping character of said section.

In forming the buckle the slots are not cut out clean, but the metal is folded or turned under at the edges of the slots, so as to avoid sharp cutting-edges,which would rapidly wear the tape. The same result might be secured by providing these slots with eyelets.

I am aware that a tape provided with a buckle biting the tape by frictional contact is not new, and I do not claim this, broadly.-

I am also aware that a bent and slotted plate has been combined with sheet-metal .bands to form a bale-tie3 but the buckle formed by such plate had no spring action, nor was the metal band sufliciently flexible to be laced through the buckle and pinched thereby in its spring action, as in my case.

1 Having thus described my invention,what I claim as new is- 1. The spring-buckle herein described, consisting of an oblong 'plate of elastic sheet metal folded on itself in to substantially parallel position to form a bent spring, slotted transversely at the bend b and having two transverse slots 0 d in the upper section and a single transverse slot 0. in the lower section, substantially as described.

2'. The spring-buckle herein described, consistin g of an oblong plate of elastic sheet metal folded on itself into substantially parallel position to form a bent spring and slotted transversely both at the bend b and at the two ends at a and 0 cl, in combination with a flexible tape or strap having one end permanently connected to the buckle through slots at and Z) and the other end laced through slots a c d and then through slots 0, and d, substantially as shown and described.

CHARLES Vv. BASSETT. Vitnesses:

JEROME PORTER, H. A. COBB. 

